Having spent a few days travelling down the sunny and warm East Coast of Tasmania we arrived in Hobart just after sunset. Just before completing the last leg of this journey we stopped off at Kate's Berry Farm, just 3km south of Swansea, for the best ice-cream I've had in Australia. Kate grows her own berries at this picturesque location on Oyster Bay, and I recommend just visiting the place to take in the view and walk around the quaint cafe/shop. The ice-cream was really good value too at $3.50 for the small serving, which was in fact huge! If ice-cream does not rock your boat, there are plenty of jams available for free tasting.

On arrival in Hobart Sheila started misbehaving; the car stalled a couple of times while parking up. We ended up checking into a fairly central hostel called The Pickled Frog, and booked in for five nights to get a $10 discount. So a six bed dorm is costing us $18 a night now. It's not the tidiest of places but seems like a good base from which to explore the rest of the city.

One of the reasons we had timed our arrival in Hobart for tonight was that Denis was going to be here this evening. I met Denis over a year ago in Auckland while I was staying at Oaklands Lodge, and had been in touch with him recently to see if we could meet up again while I was in Tasmania. We arranged to meet at the Queens Head Hotel in North Hobart (a fairly trendy part of town) and ended up having Greek takeaway for dinner. It was really good to see Denis again and thus have an Oaklands Lodge mini reunion.

First impressions of Hobart are good; it's a sizable city and there seem to be plenty of places to go and visit over the next few days. Although arriving at night it does not seem to be that cold here, I was walking around without my fleece. I think we have been exceptionally lucky with the weather since arriving in Tasmania as it has not rained once.